"You can always make mistakes but it was not an easy situation at the beginning," Benitez told reporters.

"We have managed it quite well. Every day, after every training session, I go home and think we are doing our best.

"For me it is always important to win trophies. If we win it will be easier and people will realise that to be here, at this stage of the competition, means we have done a lot of things well."

Asked if the fan's reaction to his appointment affected the players, the Spaniard replied: "You have to analyse from the beginning. You have to analyse the age of our players, the new players, the transition period we have had, the short squad at times and all the competitions.

"After tomorrow we will have played 68 games. For the last six months we have been playing two games a week at least. Imagine any team in the world doing that and progressing to semi-finals of two competitions and final of one.

"It doesn't matter what a lot of people say, we feel we have done a good job. Hopefully we can do even better."